A new field office for The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has now opened in Norfolk to support the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) in its mission to better integrate the war fighting capabilities of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Located near JFCOM headquarters, the field office — with five offices and a conference room that will accommodate 45 people — will strengthen communications between APL and JFCOM personnel working on common projects. The Laboratory's role has been to help the Command anticipate and address some of its greatest challenges, including evaluating technologies that could solve pressing military challenges and improve battlefield situational awareness.

APL's main campus is located in Laurel, Md., but it operates more than a dozen field offices across the country to provide immediate and continual support for its military sponsors. The Norfolk office opened its doors in February 2005. A joint APL/JFCOM ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception will be held on July 18, 2005.

New Phase of Ongoing Relationship

APL has had on-site support at JFCOM for about five years. Equally important to that "on-scene presence" has been the JFCOM work conducted at the Lab, says Robin Holliday, APL's JFCOM account and program manager. "We have a great deal of expertise at the Lab that directly applies to JFCOM's missions. This new office will provide an effective way of connecting the Laboratory with JFCOM, enabling a free flow of ideas and information to address JFCOM's specific needs."

As a trusted agent for JFCOM's Joint Requirements and Integration Directorate, the Lab works with combatant commanders, joint staff, the services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and others to improve the speed and precision of planning, collaboration, and joint military command and control capabilities.

Past APL activities have included providing an end-to-end systems perspective of available tracking technologies that supported JFCOM's report to Congress on technologies that could improve battlefield situational awareness and reduce fratricide, or "friendly fire" casualties.

The Lab also helped develop an assessment plan for JFCOM's Joint Battle Management Command and Control (JBMC2) to improve the way the Department of Defense organizes, trains and equips joint battle management command and control capabilities.

"We have a very professional relationship with APL, with a very open exchange of academic and systems engineering ideas," says JBMC2 Director Alex Urrutia. "It's a partnership that helps JFCOM achieve not only the products we seek, but the processes that will support them. We can talk about issues with APL and get candid and frank advice on those issues. There is an intellectual partnership."

New Challenges on the Horizon

An emerging requirement of JFCOM's role in the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program will be to determine the military utility of the Epidemic Outbreak Surveillance (EOS) system designed to rapidly detect and identify a wide range of pathogens. "This technology will support the ability of the war fighter to maintain his capabilities and readiness in biologically hostile domains," says Ann Arnold, APL's JFCOM ACTD program manager.

APL also is providing the military utility assessment for Multi-Sensor Aerospace-Ground Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Interoperability Coalition (MAJIIC), a new technology that aims to speed intelligence to front-line troops and help coalition partners exchange information. "This effort directly addresses lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom with the hope that it will allow intelligence information to be shared among coalition partners and improve the usefulness of that data.

In addition, APL is supporting JFCOM's use of modeling and simulation used to define and assess these and other advanced concepts needed for today's and tomorrow's war fighting needs.

For more information about the Norfolk field office and its support of JFCOM programs, contact Holliday at 240-228-0738.

The Applied Physics Laboratory, a division of The Johns Hopkins University, meets critical national challenges through the innovative application of science and technology. For information, visit www.jhuapl.edu.